What airport is LGA?
Why the code is LGA
Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor who forced it into existence.
The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.
The airport
- IATA code
- LGA
- ICAO code
- KLGA
- Airport
- LaGuardia Airport
- City
- New York, United States
- Opened
- 1939
- Code origin
- Documented
La Guardia refused to leave a plane at Newark in 1934 on the grounds that his ticket said New York, and used the resulting publicity to get a New York City airport built. It has a perimeter rule barring most flights over 1,500 miles, which is why you cannot fly LaGuardia to the west coast without a connection — Denver is the exception, and only because of a specific carve-out.
Codes people book by mistake
| Code | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| JFK | Also New York, 10 miles away, and the one with the long-haul flights. LGA is domestic and short-haul by rule. |
The other code, KLGA
Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, LGA, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KLGA, is the one pilots and controllers use, and it is assigned geographically: the first letter or two identify the region, so every airport in the same part of the world shares a prefix. That is why KLGA looks nothing like LGA.
Common questions
- What airport is LGA?
- LaGuardia Airport, in New York, United States.
- Why is New York's airport called LGA?
- Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor who forced it into existence.
- What is the difference between LGA and KLGA?
- LGA is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. KLGA is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.
- Is LGA the same as JFK?
- No. JFK is also New York, 10 miles away, and the one with the long-haul flights. LGA is domestic and short-haul by rule.
Related pages
- United States Capital, area, population and currency
- The flag of United States Colours, symbols and lookalikes
- Airport codes in United States 32 here
- What airport is JFK? John F. Kennedy International Airport
- What airport is JFK? John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York
- What airport is LAX? Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles
- What airport is ORD? O'Hare International Airport, Chicago
- What airport is ATL? Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta
- What airport is MCO? Orlando International Airport, Orlando
- What airport is DFW? Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas
- What airport is EWR? Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark
- What airport is SFO? San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place